CHAPTER VI.

TEXT-DIVISIONS: STICHI, CHAPTERS, LECTIONS, CATENAE.

THE Greek Old Testament, as it appears in the editions
of the last three centuries, is divided into chapters and verses
which correspond generally with those of the printed Hebrew Bible.

The traditional text-divisions of the Hebrew and the Greek
Bible are not, absolutely identical. Besides the more serious
differences described in Part II. c. i., it not unfrequently happens
that a Greek chapter is longer or shorter than the corresponding
chapter of the Hebrew by a verse or more, and that as a consequence
there are two systems of verse-numeration throughout
the succeeding chapter713713In such cases both systems are represented in the Cambridge edition
of the LXX. (see O. T. in Greek, i. p. xiv.)..

A system of verse-division714714For a full account of the divisions of the Hebrew text see Buhl, Kanon
u. Text, p. 222; Bleek-Wellhausen, p. 574 f.; Ryle, Canon of the O. T., p. 235.
Blau, Massoretic Studies, iii., in J.Q.R., Oct. 1896. is mentioned in the Mishnah
(Meg. 4. 4, Kidd. 30. 1). The Massorets noted the number
of verses (פְּסוּקִים) at the end of each book and portion of the
canon; thus Deuteronomy is stated to consist of 955 pesukim,
and the entire Torah of 5888. Of chapter-divisions in the
Hebrew Bible there are three kinds. (a) There is a pre-Talmudic
division of the canon into sections known as פרשיות.
The parashahs are of two kinds, open and closed, i.e. paragraphs,
343which begin a new line, and sub-paragraphs715715A similar system of paragraphing has been adopted in the English
Revised Version, and in the Cambridge LXX.; see R. V. Preface, and
O.T. in Greek, i. p. xv., which
are preceded only by a space. They are still registered in
the printed Bibles by the פ (for פְּתוּחָה,
'open') and ס (for
סְתוּמָה, 'closed') which occur at intervals throughout the
Torah716716In Baer's edition they are given throughout the Bible.. (b) A second system of parashahs breaks up the text
into longer sections for the use of the synagogue. The Law
was divided into 54 Sabbath lessons according to the Babylonian
tradition, but into 154 according to the tradition of
Palestine. With few exceptions717717In the Pentateuch there is only one, the lesson (12) which begins at
Gen. xlvii. 28 (Ryle, p. 236). the beginning of a lesson
coincides with that of an open or closed parashah; the coincidence
is marked in the Torah by a thrice repeated פ or ס.
The Prophets were similarly divided for synagogue reading,
but the prophetic lections were known as haphtaroth (הַפְטָרוֹת)
and were not, like the liturgical parashahs, distinguished by
signs inserted in the text. (c) Lastly, the printed Hebrew
Bibles are divided into chapters nearly identical with those of
the English versions. This system of capitulation is relatively
modern, and was applied first to the Latin Vulgate in the
thirteenth century, probably by Stephen Langton, Archbishop
of Canterbury († 1228)718718See Gregory, prolegg. p. 167 ff.. It was adapted to the Hebrew Bible
in R. Isaac Nathan's Concordance, a work of the fifteenth
century, in which use was also made of the older division into
verses or pesukim.

Of printed editions the Bomberg Hebrew Bible of 1521
was the first to employ the mediaeval system of chapters; the
verse-division found a place in the Latin version of Pagnini
(1528), and the Latin Vulgate of Robert Stephen (1555), and
finally in the Hebrew Bible of Athias (1661). Both chapters
344and verses were applied to the text of the Septuagint before
the sixteenth century; the capitulation appeared in the Complutensian
Polyglott and in the Aldine edition of 1518, and the
verse-numeration in the Frankfort edition of the Aldine text719719It prints the verse-numbers in the margin, and begins every verse with
a capital letter..

Neither the verses nor the chapters of the existing text-division
occur in MSS. of the Greek Old Testament, except in
relatively later copies720720E.g. H.-P. 38 (xv.), 122 (xv.), where the modern chapters are marked., or in older MSS. where the numerals
have been supplied by a recent hand. But the student who
examines MSS. of the LXX. or their facsimiles finds himself
confronted by other systems which are both interesting and in
some respects important. To these the present chapter will be
devoted.

1. We begin with the shorter divisions, known as στίχοι,
κῶλα, or κόμματα.

(a) Στίχος, Lat. versus, is properly a series of objects
placed in a row. The word is used in the LXX. of the stones
in the High Priest's breastplate (στίχος λίθων, Exod. xxviii.
17 ff.), the pomegranates wrought upon the capitals of the
pillars in the Temple (στίχοι ῥοῶν, 3 Regn. vii. 6),
and the rows of cedar wood shafts (τριῶν στίχων στύλων κεδρίνων, ib. 9).
When applied to the art of writing, the word signifies a continuous
line of letters or syllables. The extent of an author's
literary work was measured by the stichi he had written;
cf. e.g. Diogenes Laertius iv. 24, Κράντωρ κατέλιπεν ὑπομνήματα εἰς μυριάδας στίχων
τρεῖς: Dionysius Halicarn. vi. 1126 πέντε ἢ
ἓξ μυριάδας στίχων τοῦ ἀνδρὸς
(sc. Δημοσθένους) καταλελοιπότος.
The 'line' might be measured in various ways, as by the limits
imposed upon the scribe by the breadth of his papyrus, or
in the case of poetry by the number of feet in the metre; or
again it might be fixed in each instance by the requirements of
345the sense; or it might depend upon a purely conventional
standard. Evidence has been produced721721By Ch. Graux, Revue de philologie, II. (1878), p. 97 ff. to shew that the last
of these methods was adopted in the copying of Greek prose
writings, and that the length of the prose stichus was determined
by that of the Homeric hexameter, i.e. it was normally
a line of sixteen syllables; in some instances the Iambic
trimeter seems to have been the standard preferred, and the
line consisted of twelve syllables722722J. R. Harris, Stichometry, pp. 8, 15.. The number of letters in
the stichus was on the average 37—38 in the one case, and
28—29 in the other. Such a system served more than one
useful purpose. Besides facilitating reference, it regulated the
pay of the scribe, and consequently the price of the book. The
number of the lines in a book once determined, it might be
written in any form without affecting the cost723723See E. Maunde-Thompson, Gr. and Lat. Palaeography, i. p. 80; Prof.
Sanday, in Studia Biblica, iii. p. 263 f.; J. R. Harris, op. cit. p. 26.. The compiler
of the Cheltenham list explains that dishonest scribes at Rome
and elsewhere purposely suppressed or mutilated the stichometry724724"Indiculum versuum in urbe Roma non ad liquidum, sed et alibi
avariciae causa non habent integrum.".
Thus the careful entry of the στίχοι in the margins of
ancient books, or the computation at the end of the number of
στίχοι contained in them, was not due to mere custom or
sentiment, but served an important practical end.

(b) Besides this conventional measurement there existed
another system which regulated the length of the line by the
sense. Sense-divisions were commonly known as κῶλα or
κόμμετα. The colon, according to Suidas, is a line which
forms a complete clause (ὁ ἀπηρτισμένην ἔννοιαν ἔχων
στίχος;
the comma is a shorter colon725725See Wordsworth-White, Epilogus, p. 733, nn. 1, 2..

Specimens of colometry may be seen in Codd. א B, where
the poetical books are written in cola of such length that the
scribe has been compelled to limit himself in this part of his
work to two columns instead of dividing his page into three or
four.

Among the lists of the books of the O. T. canon printed
in an earlier chapter of this book (Part II. c. i.) there are three
which are accompanied by a stichometry. We will now collect
their measurements and exhibit them in a tabular form.

The figures given above correspond to those in the lists
printed in c. i., which follow the text of Preuschen (Analecta,
pp. 156 f., 142 ff., 138 f.). Some variants and suggested rectifications
may be seen in Zahn, Gesch. d. NTlichen Kanons, ii., pp. 295 ff.,
143 ff., and Sanday, Studia Biblica, iii., pp. 266 ff.

Many MSS. of the Greek Bible contain more or less
complete stichometries of the several books of the canon.
Either the total number of stichi is registered at the end of the
book, or a record is kept throughout the book by placing a
figure or figures in the margin at the end of each centenary of
lines. Some of our oldest MSS: reproduce in this form the
stichometry of their archetypes; in other cases, a stichometry
which has been copied into the margin by a second or later
hand. Thus in Cod. B, the margins of 1—4 Regn. and Isaiah
present a nearly complete record732732It is printed by Harris, Stichometry, p. 59 ff. Cf. Nestle, Introd. to
the Textual Criticism of the N. T. (E. tr.), p. 4. of stichi written prima
manu, and doubtless transcribed from the MSS. to which the
scribe owed his copy of those books. A marginal register of
stichi is also found in part of Cod. F, beginning with Deuteronomy,
and in Cod. Q, where it is due to the hand which has
added the Hexaplaric matter. The entries in B and Q agree
generally in Isaiah; in both MSS. the last entry occurs at
Isa. lxv. 19, where the number of stichi reaches 3500. But the
famous Chigi MS. of the Prophets (Cod. 87) counts 3820
stichi in Isaiah733733ωκ, or as Allatius read the MS.,
(3808); see Cozza, Sacr. bibl.
vet. fragm. iii. p. xv.. This approaches the number given by
Nicephorus, whilst the total number of stichi in BQ, 3600, agrees
with the computation of the Claromontane list. The addition
of 200 stichi in Nicephorus and Cod. 87 is due, Ceriani
suggests, to the greater length of the Hexaplaric and Lucianic
texts734734De cod. March., p. 23 f.. There is a similar disparity between the stichometry of
Nicephorus and the reckoning of Cod. F in Deuteronomy,
349where in F the stichi are 3000735735The symbol used is , which occurs also in B. On this symbol, see
J. Woisin, De Graecorum notis numeralibus, n. 67 (Kiel, 1886)., but in Nicephorus 3100. On
the other hand the later uncial K makes the stichi of Numbers
to be 3535, which comes very near to the reckoning of
Nicephorus736736The numeration of the stichi in the poetical books ascribed to the
greater uncials in the Cambridge manual LXX. is derived from Dr Nestle's
Supplementum² (Leipzig, 1887) and rests on an actual counting of the lines,
and not on statements in the MSS. themselves..

Stichometrical variation is doubtless chiefly or largely due
to divergent types of text. But other causes of disparity were
at work. It was easy for scribes to misread the letters which
represented the number of the lines, especially when they were
mechanically copied from an archetype. The older signs may
have been sometimes misunderstood737737Cf. J. R. Harris, Stichometry, p. 31., or those which were
intelligible may have been confused by careless copying. A
glance . at the comparative table on p. 346 f. will shew that
several of the larger discrepancies can only be explained in
some such way.

The following stichometry is derived chiefly from Dr E.
Klostermann's Analecta738738See p. 44 ff. Cf. J. Th. St., ii. p. 238 ff., giving the result of his researches
among cursive MSS., with some additions supplied by the
Editors of the larger LXX.

2. No complete system of capitulation is found in any
of our existing uncial MSS. of the Greek Old Testament.
Yet even the Vatican MS., which is written continuously except
in the poetical books, bears traces of a system of chapter-divisions
which is older than itself745745Tischendorf (Mon. sacr. ined. n. c., i. prolegg., p. xxvii.) points out
that Tertullian recognises a system of chapters in Numbers.. It begins with Proverbs,
and from that book onwards chapter-numbers appear in the
margin of the canonical writings, whilst in some instances
there is a double capitulation, as the following table will shew.

Proverbs

61

16

Zephaniah

5

Ecclesiastes

25

7

Haggai

3

Song

40

5

Zechariah

18

Job

33

Malachi

6

Hosea

11

Isaiah

74

Amos

6

Jeremiah

100

98

Micah

7

Baruch

9

Joel

3

Lamentations

85746746In this book the chapter-numbers correspond to the divisions indicated
in the original by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and in the recension by
transliteration of the Hebrew alphabetic names.

The figures in the left-hand column are prima manu; those
on the right are in a hand of perhaps the eleventh century
(? that of 'Clement the Monk,' the industrious instaurator who
has left his name on pp. 238 and 264 of the MS.748748See the pref. to Fabiani and Cozza's facsimile, p. xvii. sqq.). In
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song the capitulation of the later
hand differs widely, as will be observed, from the system which
the original scribe reproduced from his archetype. But in
the Prophets the corrector seems simply to have followed the
numbers inscribed in the margin by B; the latter can be detected
here and there under the large coarse characters of the
later hand, and towards the end of Jeremiah and throughout
352Daniel the two sets of numbers are distinctly visible. In
Jeremiah the instaurator here and there breaks away from the
guidance of the first hand, and the totals are slightly different.
But the difference is probably accidental, and it is certainly
slight; whereas in the Salomonic books another system is
followed, in which the chapters are three or four times as
long as those of the older capitulation.

Cod. A is broken into paragraphs throughout the prose
books, the beginning of each paragraph being indicated not
only by paragraph-marks, but by the use of a capital letter
which projects into the margin. Besides the paragraphing
certain books—Deuteronomy, Joshua, 3—4 Kingdoms, Isaiah—retain
traces of a capitulation imperfectly copied from
the archetype. In Deuteronomy chapter-marks occur at
cc. i. 1, 9, 19; 40; ii. 1, 7, 14; in Joshua they begin at
ix. 1 (ιβ) and proceed regularly (x.
1, 16, 29, 31, 34, 36, 38; xi. 1, &c.) down to xix. 17 (λη); in
3 Regn. the first numeral occurs at c. viii. 22 (κβ), and the last at xxi.
17 (νθ); 4 Regn. returns only one or two numbers
(e.g. θ stands opposite to c. iii. 20). In Isaiah, again, the entries are few and
irregular; β appears at c. ii. 1, and
θ at xxi. 1.

Cod. א seems to have no chapter-marks prima manu, but
in Isaiah they have been added by אc.c
throughout the book749749Tischendorf, notes to facsimile, p. v..

Jeremiah, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are capitulated
in cod. Q, and in the two last-named books the capitulation
of Q agrees with that of B. In Jeremiah, where the
agreement is less complete, the chapters in Q do not proceed
beyond c. xxiv., a circumstance which suggests a Hexaplaric
origin750750Ceriani, de cod. March., p. 24 ff..

Cod. M like cod. B exhibits two systems of capitulation751751See Montfaucon, Biblioth. Coisliniana, p. 4 sqq.,
353one of which is accompanied by brief headings corresponding
in general character to the τίτλοι of the Gospels. The two
capitulations, which are represented with more or less of completeness
in the Hexateuch and in 1—3 Kingdoms752752Another Coislin MS. (Coisl. gr. 8) gives the following capitulation
for some of the later histories: 1 Chron. 83, 2 Chron. 86, Tobit 21, Judith
34, 1 Esdr. 109, 2 Esdr. 80, Esther 55., differ
considerably, as the following table will shew:

A list of sections quoted by Dr Klostermann756756Analecta, p. 80 ff. This division into sections, however, refers not to
the text of the books, but to that of the synopsis contained in the MS.
Cf. also the κεφάλαια in Hab. iii. found in
Barb. v. 45 (86, H.-P.). from the
cursive MS. cod. Barberini iii. 36 (cent. x. or xi.) exhibits
another widely different scheme757757Interesting traces of another old capitulation are to be found in the
ἐκλογὴ τοῦ νόμου printed in Cotelerii Eccl. Gr. Mon. i. p.
1. The chapters here are shorter and therefore more numerous than in any of the lists given
above, e.g. Exod. xxii. 1—27 forms part of the 68th chapter and
Deut. xxv. 11 ff. of the 93rd in their several books, while Leviticus apparently
contains 150 chapters and Numbers 140.:

It is clear that no induction can be drawn from the facts
which are at present within our reach; nor can the various
systems of capitulation be safely classified until some scholar
has collected and tabulated the chapter-divisions of a large
number of MSS. of varying ages and provenance758758Paragraphs or sections marked by capitals protruding into the margin
or written in red ink, or (less frequently) distinguished by numbers, occur
perhaps in the majority of cursives; the following list of cursives thus
divided is taken from descriptions of MSS. made for the use of the Editors
of the larger LXX.: H.-P. x. xi., 16, 17, 18, 29, 38, 46, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59,
64 (double system of capitulation), 68, 70, 73, 74, 76, 78, 79 (in Gen. χπβʹ),
83, 84, 93, 108, 118 120, 121, 123, 126, 127, 128 (contemporary numbers),
130, 131, 134; B. M. Add. 35123, Lambeth 1214; Paris Ars. 8415; Esc. Ω.
i. 13, Σ i. 16; Munich gr. 454; Grotta Ferrata A. γ. 1; Leipzig gr. 361;
Athos, Pantocr. 24 (double system of capitulation, τίτλοι),
Vatop. 513, 516; Laur. γ. 112 (both chapters and στίχοι numbered); Athens, nat. gr.
44; Sinai 1, Jerusalem, H. Sep. 2.. It is
probable, however, that the systems, which at present seem to
be nearly as numerous as the capitulated copies of the LXX.,
will prove to be reducible to a few types reproduced by the
scribes with many variations in detail.

The 'titles' deserve separate consideration. In the few
instances where we are able to institute a comparison these
headings seem to be independent. In Numbers, e.g., the
following table shews little correspondence between those in
codd. K, M, even when the chapters coincide.

3. One class of sections calls for separate treatment.
In Part I. c. v. (p. 168 f.) some account has been given of
MSS. which consist of lessons taken from the Old Testament.
Few of these lectionaries are older than the eleventh century,
and only one goes back to the sixth or seventh. But the
choice of passages for public reading in the services of the
Church must have begun at a much earlier period. The
public reading of the O. T. Scriptures. was an institution
inherited by the Church from the Synagogue (Lc. iv. 16 ff.,
Acts xiii. 15, xv. 21;
cf. 1 Tim. iv. 13), and there is evidence
that it was prevalent in Christian communities of the second
and third centuries762762See above, p. 168, and cf. Gregory, Textkritik, i. p. 337.. At one great Christian centre provision
was made for the liturgical reading of the Bible on certain
week-days as well as on Sunday. "At Alexandria (writes
Socrates) on Wednesdays and Fridays the Scriptures are read
and the clergy expound them . . . and this is at Alexandria a
practice of long standing, for it was on these occasions that
Origen appears to have given most of his instructions in the
Church763763H. S. v. 22 ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ τῇ τετράδι τῇ λεγομένῃ παρασκευῇ γραφαί
τε ἀναγινώσκονται, καὶ οἱ διδάσκαλοι ταύτας ἐρμηνεύουσι . . . καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἐν
Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ ἔθος ἀρχαῖον· καὶ γὰρ Ὠριγένης τὰ πολλὰ ἐν ταύταις ταῖς ἡμέραις
φαίνεται ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας διδάξας.
." Turning to Origen's homilies on the Old Testament
357we find allusions which shew that they were usually based on
the lesson for the day, and we get light upon the length of the
selected passages.

The lections to which Origen refers were doubtless those
which were read in the pre-anaphoral portion of the Liturgy in
the hearing of the catechumens as well as the faithful. In the
liturgy of Apost. Const. ii., the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, the
Kingdoms, the Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, the Salomonic
books, and the sixteen Prophets, are all mentioned as books
from which the Old Testament lection might be taken; i.e.
all the books of the Hebrew Canon, with the exception of the
358Psalter and perhaps the Book of Esther, were employed for
this purpose. The order in Book viii. names only the Law
and the Prophets, but probably the scope is the same. The
'Prophet,' i.e. the Old Testament lesson, preceded the
'Apostle' (the Epistle) in the liturgy of Antioch as known to
St Chrysostom at the end of the fourth century, and it held its
place in the East generally till the seventh766766Brightman, Eastern Liturgies, pp. 470, 476, 527, 580. See Chrys.
in Rom. xxiv. 3 (cited above, p. 168).. In the West the
'prophecy' was read by the North African Church of St Augustine's
time, and it still holds its ground in the Mozarabic
and Ambrosian rites767767D. C. A., Prophecy Liturgical (ii. 173b ff.).. In Egypt, as John Cassian tells us,
the monastic communities read two lessons from Scripture
both at Nocturns and Vespers, and (Saturdays and Sundays
excepted) one of the two lessons was from the Old Testament768768De inst. coenob. ii. 6.;
and the West generally adopted the custom of reading both
the Old and the New Testament in the daily offices.

Before the formation of Lectionaries the liturgical lessons
were marked in the margins of Church Bibles by the words
ἀρχή, τέλος,
written opposite to the beginning and end of the
περικοπή769769On this word see Suicer, Thesaurus, ii. 673 sqq . It is used by Justin,
Dial. 78 and Clem. Al., Strom. iii. 38. In Origen (quoted above) the
περικοπή is merely a section; at a later time it was
used for the ἀνάγνωσμα.
.
Such traces of adaptation to liturgical use are found
even in cod. B, though not prima manu770770Fabiani and Cozza, prolegg., p. xix.. Whether any of
the larger chapters which appear in certain MSS. (e.g. the
later system in cod. B) are of the nature of lections, must
remain doubtful until the whole subject has received the
fuller treatment which it demands.

The Psalter obviously needed no capitulation, nor was it
ever read by the ἀναγνώστης in the lessons for the day. But
special Psalms were recited or sung in the Church, as they had
359been in the Synagogue771771See p. 251., and in some early monastic communities
arrangements were made for a regular recitation of the Psalter both in public and
private772772Cf. Cassian, Inst. iii. 289.. The scribe of cod. A has copied into his MS. a list of Psalms
for daily use, in which three are appointed to be said at each of the two public
services, and one is selected for private use at each hour of the day and night.
It is as follows:

The existing order of the Orthodox Eastern Church divides
the Psalter into 20 sections known as καθίσματα, each of which
is broken by the recitation of a Gloria into three στάσας. The
larger sections are i.—viii., ix.—xvi,, xvii.—xxiii., xxiv.—xxxi.,
xxxii.—xxxvi., xxxvii.—xlv., xlvi.—liv., lv.—lxiii., lxiv.—lxix.,
lxx.—lxxvi., lxxxvii.—lxxxiv., lxxxv.—xc., xci.—c., ci.—civ.,
cv.—cviii., cix.—cxvii., cxviii., cxix.—cxxxi., cxxxii.—cxlii.,
cxliii.—cl. In the later liturgical Greek Psalter the cathismata
are divided by an ornamental band or some other mark of
separation, and the staseis by a marginal
(δόξα, i.e. the Doxology, which
was repeated at the end of each)775775Cf. O. T. in Gr., ii. p. xi..

(1) A few other text-divisions, peculiar to certain contexts
or books, may be specified here. In Isaiah it was not unusual
to mark in the margin the place where each of the books of
Origen's commentary ended (τόμος αʹ—λςʹ, cf. Eus. H.E. vi. 36).
Both in Isaiah and in Daniel certain prophetic ὁράσεις were distinguished.
Thus cod. Qmg places opposite to
Isa. vii. 1, and
at c. xvii. 1. In Daniel cod. A marks 12
ὁράσεις,
which begin respectively at Sus. 1, Dan. i. 1, ii. 1, iii. 1, iii. 98,
v. 1, v. 30, vii. 1, viii. 1, ix. 1, xi. 1, Bel 1, and the same method
of division is used in codd. QΓ. In Lamentations each stanza is
preceded by a representation of the Hebrew letter with which it
begins, e.g. ἀλέφ (ἄλφ, ἀλφά776776The variations in the MSS. are interesting and instructive.),
βήθ, γίμελ (γίμλ),
δάλεθ (δέλεθ, δέλτ, δέλθ),
and so forth777777Greek numerals are sometimes added in the margin; see above, p. 351.. In the analogous case of Psalm
cxviii. (cxix.), there are no signs of this treatment, except in the
Graeco-Latin Psalters RT778778R gives the Heb. letters in Greek; T the corresponding Greek numerals..

Small departures from the continuous or slightly paragraphed
writing of the oldest MSS. are found in a few contexts which
lend themselves to division. Thus even in cod. B the blessings
of the tribes in Gen. xlix. 3—27 are separated and numbered
—. A similar treatment but without marginal enumeration is
accorded to Deut. xiv. 12—18 and 1 Paral. i. 51—54, Eccl. iii.
1—8. The ten words of the Decalogue are numbered in the
margins of codd. BA, but not prima manu; and the systems of
numeration differ to some extent. Thus according to Ba, αʹ = prologue,
βʹ = i + ii, γʹ=iii,
δʹ = iv, εʹ = v,
ςʹ = vii, ζʹ = viii,
ηʹ = vi, θʹ = ix,
ιʹ = x, while A¹ makes γʹ = iv,
δʹ = v, εʹ = vi; the other
numbers in A are effaced, or were never appended.

(2) It would be interesting, if sufficient materials were available,
to pursue the subject of text-division with reference to the
daughter-versions of the LXX. On the stichometry and capitulation
of the Latin Bible much information has been brought
together by M. Berger (Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 307 ff.) and
Wordsworth-White (Epilogus, p.733 ff.); for the stichometry see
also Dr Sanday in Studia Biblica, iii. p. 264 f. But it remains
361doubtful whether these divisions of the Latin Bible belonged
originally to Jerome's version or were transferred to it from the
Old Latin780780Cf. Sanday, op. cit., p. 272.; or, supposing the latter view to be correct, whether
they came from the MSS. of the LXX. which were used by the
early African or Italian translators. In referring to the N.T.
Tertullian speaks of capitula not seldom (ad uxor. ii. 2,
de monog. 11, de virg. vel. 4, de praescr. 5, adv. Prax. 20); but it
is not clear that he uses the word to connote definitely marked
sections.

On the capitulation of the Coptic versions the student will
find something in Wilkins, Pentat. praef., ad fin., and Lagarde,
Orientalia, p. 125 ff.; on the Egyptian lectionary, he may consult
the list of authorities collected by Brightman, Ancient
Liturgies, p. lxix. For the Ethiopic version, cf. Dillmann's Ethiopic
Pentateuch, I. ii., pp. 163 f., 173. The stichometry of the
Syro-Hexaplaric is discussed by Lagarde, Mittheilungen, iv.
(1891), p. 205 f. A list of Church lessons, taken from the Palestinian-Syriac
lectionary recently discovered by Mrs Lewis and
Mrs Gibson, is given by Nestle in Studia Sinaitica, vi. p. xxix. ff.

4. In connexion with the subject of text-division it will be
convenient to mention the expositions which accompany and
often break up the text in MSS. of the Greek Bible. The
student will have observed that many of the codices enumerated
in Part I. c. v. (pp. 148—168) contain commentaries,
either original (comm.), or compiled (cat.). Of the Greek
commentators something will be said when we come to consider
the use of the LXX. by the Greek fathers; in this place
we will limit ourselves to the relatively late compilations which
are based on the exegetical works of earlier writers781781Ch. Q. R. i. 99, p. 34: "the process of drawing up Catenae goes on
from the fifth to the fourteenth or fifteenth century.".

Such expositions were formerly described as ἐκλογαί or
παραγραφαί, or as ἐπιτομαὶ ἑρμηνειῶν, or ἐξηγήσεις ἐρανισθεῖσαι
ἀπὸ διαφόρων πατέρων, or συνόψεις σχολικαὶ ἐκ διαφόρων
ὑπομνημάτων συλλεχθεῖσαι, or by some similar periphrasis. The
use of the technical term catena (σειρά) is of comparatively
modern date. Catena aurea is a secondary title of the great
362compendium of comments on the Four Gospels brought
together by Thomas Aquinas, and a Greek MS. Psalter of the
16th century (Vat. Gr. 2240) adopts the phrase, translating it
by χρυσῆ ἅλυσις. Σειρά
is used in this sense by the editor of
the Greek catena of Nicephorus, which bears the title Σειρὰ
ἐνὸς καὶ πεντήκοντα ὑπομνηματιστῶν εἰς τὴν Ὀκτάτευχον καὶ τὰ
τῶν Βασιλειῶν.
The metaphor so happily expresses the
principle on which such commentaries are constructed, that
books of this description are now universally known as catenae
or σειραί. They are 'chains' in which each link is supplied
by some ancient author, scraps of exegesis threaded together
by the ingenuity or industry of a collector who usually elects
to be anonymous.

The catenists drew their materials from all sources within
their reach. They laid under contribution Jewish writers such
as Philo and Josephus, heretics like Basileides, Valentinus, and
Marcion, suspects like Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinarius,
and Theodore of Mopsuestia, as well as the accepted
teachers and Saints of the Catholic Church. Their range
extended from the first century to the fifth or sixth, and they
had access to a number of writers whose works have since
disappeared. Hence their value in the eyes of patristic
scholars and editors. But they are not without importance for
the purposes of the biblical student. The text embedded in the
commentary may be late782782See, however, the facts collected in Ch. Q. R. i. 99, p. 46 f., but the commentary itself often preserves
the witness of early writers to an old and valuable type.

The catena is usually written in the broad margins which
surround the text, or it embodies the text, which in that case is
usually distinguished from it by being written in uncials or
in coloured ink, or enclosed within marks of quotation. The
names of the authors who have been pressed into the service
of the catenist are commonly inserted in the margin at the
363place where their contributions begin: thus
, ,
, ,
, ,
. If a second passage from the same author occurs
in the same context it is introduced as ;
an anonymous writer is .
Unfortunately in the copying of catenae
such attributions have often been omitted or misplaced, or even
erroneously inserted, and as to this particular the student
must be on his guard against a too unsuspecting acquiescence
in the witness of his MS. Nor can he place implicit confidence
in the verbal accuracy of the excerpts. The catenists
evidently regarded themselves as free, while retaining the
substance; to abbreviate and otherwise modify the language
of their authors.

The nineteenth century has added little to our collection
of printed Greek catenae on the Old Testament, and the
earlier editions do not always adequately represent the witness
of the best MSS. Meanwhile a great store of MS. catenae
awaits the examination of Biblical scholars. Some of these
are at Athos, Athens, Smyrna and Jerusalem, but there is an
abundant supply in libraries more accessible to Western
students, at St Petersburg, Rome, Paris, and London. Perhaps
no corner of the field of Biblical and patristic research offers so
much virgin soil, with so good a prospect of securing useful if
not brilliant results.

On the Paris O. T. catenae see H. Lietzmann, Catenen,
p. 37 ff. Some of the Vatican catenae are handled by Pitra,
analecta sacra 11, Klostermann, analecta, passim; a full and
valuable account of Roman MS. catenae on the Prophets is
given by Faulhaber (die Propheten Catenen). For lists of
the catenae in the great libraries of Europe and the East, the
student must consult the published catalogues, e.g. Montfaucon,
Omont (Paris), Stephenson (Vatican), Lambeccius (Vienna),
Lambros (Athos), Papadopulos (Jerusalem). The more important
MSS. are enumerated by Harnack-Preuschen, and
Heinrici, and in the older work of Fabricius-Harles. A Catenarum
graecarum catalogus by G. Karo and H. Lietzmann is in
progress (Nachrichten der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu Göttingen (Philologisch-hist. Klasse), 1902 ff.

5. Besides catenae and detached scholia the margins of
LXX. MSS. frequently contain notes of various kinds, written
oftentimes in perplexing abbreviations. Lists of abbreviations
are given by the principal palaeographical authorities, such as
Montfaucon's Palaeographia Graeca, Gardthausen's Griechische
Paläographie, and Sir E. Maunde Thompson's Handbook of
Greek and Latin Palaeography; but the subject can only be
mastered by working upon the MSS. themselves or their
facsimiles. It may be useful, however, to print here a few of
the abbreviated notes and symbols which occur in the apparatus
of the Cambridge manual LXX., or are of frequent
occurrence in the principal codices.

735The symbol used is , which occurs also in B. On this symbol, see
J. Woisin, De Graecorum notis numeralibus, n. 67 (Kiel, 1886).

736The numeration of the stichi in the poetical books ascribed to the
greater uncials in the Cambridge manual LXX. is derived from Dr Nestle's
Supplementum² (Leipzig, 1887) and rests on an actual counting of the lines,
and not on statements in the MSS. themselves.

756Analecta, p. 80 ff. This division into sections, however, refers not to
the text of the books, but to that of the synopsis contained in the MS.
Cf. also the κεφάλαια in Hab. iii. found in
Barb. v. 45 (86, H.-P.).

757Interesting traces of another old capitulation are to be found in the
ἐκλογὴ τοῦ νόμου printed in Cotelerii Eccl. Gr. Mon. i. p.
1. The chapters here are shorter and therefore more numerous than in any of the lists given
above, e.g. Exod. xxii. 1—27 forms part of the 68th chapter and
Deut. xxv. 11 ff. of the 93rd in their several books, while Leviticus apparently
contains 150 chapters and Numbers 140.

769On this word see Suicer, Thesaurus, ii. 673 sqq . It is used by Justin,
Dial. 78 and Clem. Al., Strom. iii. 38. In Origen (quoted above) the
περικοπή is merely a section; at a later time it was
used for the ἀνάγνωσμα.